I am good at turning mundane, everyday tasks into games. The first time I realized I was good at this was when I was working as an outdoor guide and we started learning the Leave No Trace (LNT) principles. By the end of the week my co-workers in the guiding program were in the middle of an utterly ridiculous game based around just trying to get from one end of campus to the other without getting caught by a fellow guide breaking one of the LNT principles. A few weeks after the training, the game was still being played by all of the guides and one of them thanked me for “coming up” with it. Until it was pointed out to me, I had no idea I was doing it. Since then many friends have told me of times when I made up a game either for learning or in an everyday situation without meaning to.
I would say that I learned this skill from my mother. After people pointed out my propensity for making everything into a game I thought back to my childhood and realized that my mother had been doing it for my entire life. The most noticeable instance of this is when we were travelling to visit colleges. I am not sure why these trips in particular stick out in my mind, we had been playing games as long as I can remember, but during the college trips she made a game out of making people smile. The idea behind the game was that while travelling you interact with tons of people a day and chances are at least one of them is not having such a good day. In these instances the first person, either my mother or myself, to make the person laugh would get to choose what we ate for dinner that night. Many of my fondest memories from childhood revolve around games similar to this one and I have, apparently, internalized this outlook and make my own games often.
The future applications of this skill/outlook on life should be pretty apparent based on my decision to pursue a career in teaching chemistry (one of the most “mundane and tedious” subjects imaginable). Beyond trying to use my enthusiasm to inspire a game like atmosphere of learning, very different from the “game of school” discussed in the reading, it is something I find myself doing everyday and one of the most commented on aspects of my personality.
I would say that I learned this skill from my mother. After people pointed out my propensity for making everything into a game I thought back to my childhood and realized that my mother had been doing it for my entire life. The most noticeable instance of this is when we were travelling to visit colleges. I am not sure why these trips in particular stick out in my mind, we had been playing games as long as I can remember, but during the college trips she made a game out of making people smile. The idea behind the game was that while travelling you interact with tons of people a day and chances are at least one of them is not having such a good day. In these instances the first person, either my mother or myself, to make the person laugh would get to choose what we ate for dinner that night. Many of my fondest memories from childhood revolve around games similar to this one and I have, apparently, internalized this outlook and make my own games often.
The future applications of this skill/outlook on life should be pretty apparent based on my decision to pursue a career in teaching chemistry (one of the most “mundane and tedious” subjects imaginable). Beyond trying to use my enthusiasm to inspire a game like atmosphere of learning, very different from the “game of school” discussed in the reading, it is something I find myself doing everyday and one of the most commented on aspects of my personality.